Clair Bee

Clair Bee

Sport(s)	Basketball, football, baseball
Biographical details
Born	March 2, 1896 Grafton, West Virginia
Died	May 20, 1983 (aged 87) Cleveland, Ohio
Playing career
1922–1925	Waynesburg (football, baseball, tennis)
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1929?–1930?	Rider
1940	LIU Brooklyn
Basketball
1925–1926	High school
1928–1931	Rider
1931–1943	LIU Brooklyn
1945–1951	LIU Brooklyn
1952–1954	Baltimore Bullets (NBA)
Baseball
1929	Rider
1934–1939	LIU Brooklyn
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1929–1931	Rider
1954–1967	New York Military Academy
Head coaching record
Tournaments	NIT: 6–5 (.545)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 Helms National (1939) 1 Premo-Porretta National (1936) 2 NIT (1939, 1941)
Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 1968 (profile)
College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006

Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American basketball coach, who led the team at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles in 1939 and 1941. He was born in Grafton, West Virginia, and was a graduate of Waynesburg University (then Waynesburg College) where he played football, baseball, and tennis. He was born to James Edward Bee (1871-1933) and Margaret Ann Skinner.

Bee's teams won 95 percent of their games from 1931 to 1951, including 43 in a row from 1935 to 1937.^[1] Bee holds the Division I NCAA record for highest winning percentage, winning 82.6% of the games he was head coach. ^[2] Bee resigned in 1951 after several of his players were implicated in the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal. LIU shut down its athletic program shortly afterward.

Bee also coached the football team at LIU until it was disbanded in 1940.^[3]

He coached the National Basketball Association's Baltimore Bullets from 1952 to 1954, amassing a 34-116 record under his tenure.

Bee was known as the "Innovator". His contributions to the game of basketball include the 1-3-1 zone defense and the three-second rule. Bee also served as co-host of the early NBC sports-oriented television program "Campus Hoopla" on WNBT from 1946 to 1947.

His influence on the game also extended to strategies sports camps (Camp All-America), (Kutsher's Sports Academy), writing technical coaching books, and conducting coaching clinics around the world. By the time he left coaching in the 1950s, Bee had already begun writing the Chip Hilton Sports Series for younger readers.

Bee was inducted into the Basketball Hall Of Fame in 1968. The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award is awarded every year to a coach who makes an outstanding contribution to the game of college basketball, and the Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award is awarded to a men's basketball player.

In 1968, he cofounded the Kutsher's Sports Academy.^[4]

One of Bee's grandfathers was Ephraim Bee, a member of the first West Virginia Legislature.

Head coaching record

College

Football

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs
Rider Roughriders (Independent) (1929?–1930?)
1929	Rider	?–?
1930	Rider	?–?
Rider:		?–?
Long Island Blackbirds (Independent) (1940)
1940	Long Island	5–1
Long Island:		5–1
Total:		?–?

Basketball

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Rider Roughriders (Independent) (1928–1931)
1928–29	Rider	19–3
1929–30	Rider	17–3
1930–31	Rider	17–2
Rider:		53–8 (.869)
Long Island Blackbirds (Independent) (1931–1943)
1931–32	Long Island	16–4
1932–33	Long Island	6–11
1933–34	Long Island	26–1
1934–35	Long Island	24–2
1935–36	Long Island	25–0			Premo-Porretta National Champions[5]
1936–37	Long Island	28–3
1937–38	Long Island	23–5			NIT Quarterfinals
1938–39	Long Island	23–0			Helms Foundation National Champions NIT Champions
1939–40	Long Island	19–4			NIT Quarterfinals
1940–41	Long Island	25–2			NIT Champions
1941–42	Long Island	25–3			NIT Quarterfinals
1942–43	Long Island	13–6
1945–46	Long Island	14–9
1946–47	Long Island	17–5			NIT Quarterfinals
1947–48	Long Island	17–4
1948–49	Long Island	18–12
1949–50	Long Island	20–5			NIT Quarterfinals
1950–51	Long Island	20–4
Long Island:		360–80 (.818)
Total:		413–88 (.824)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

Baseball

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Rider Roughriders (Independent) (1929)
1929	Rider	3–2
Rider:		3–2 (.600)
Long Island Blackbirds (Independent) (1934–1939)
Long Island:		75–22–4 (.762)
Total:		78–24–4 (.755)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

Professional

NBA

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win-loss %
Post season	PG	Playoff games	PW	Playoff wins	PL	Playoff losses	PW–L %	Playoff win-loss %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
BAL	1952–53	70	16	54	.229	4th in Eastern	2	0	2	.000	Lost in Div. Semifinals
BAL	1953–54	72	16	56	.222	5th in Eastern	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Career		142	32	110	.225		2	0	2	.000

References

1. LIU streaks
3. Long Island University Blackbirds All-Time Football Records
4. Basketball Hall of Fame bio
5. ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 544. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

External links

• Basketball Hall of Fame profile